Nina Dobrev scored her big break playing Mia Jones on Degrassi: The Next Generation in
2006, before becoming better known as Elena Gilbert on The Vampire Diaries three years
later.
After leaving the dramatic teen fantasy series behind in 2015, she went on to appear in The
Final Girls, a slasher comedy film that received praise from critics.
It looked like she was in a perfect position to rule the entertainment industry as Hollywood's
next go-to leading lady.
But apart from a handful of movies and TV guest spots, she's been pretty quiet.
Since there's a lot about Dobrev's career that fans may have missed since she left Mystic
Falls, let's answer the question on everyone's mind: Why won't Hollywood cast Nina Dobrev
anymore?
Surprising Vampire Diaries exit
Dobrev shocked die-hard Vampire Diaries fans everywhere when she exited the show after
six seasons in May 2015.
While the actress had secretly planned on leaving at that point in the series from the
start, saying goodbye to Elena Gilbert was a bittersweet experience for herself and viewers
alike.
Still, she was well aware that taking this big risk into the unknown could be the end
of her career.
She told Harper's Bazaar in 2017,
"I needed to feel that fear of, 'Oh, my God, what if I never get a job again?'"
The wrong projects
While there's something admirable about Dobrev carefully picking her roles, her aim hasn't
always been on point, like when she found her way back to the big screen in a pair of
2017 films: Crash Pad and xXx: Return of Xander Cage.
Crash Pad received some harsh reviews, with the Los Angeles Times calling it a "forced,
formulaic revenge comedy."
Xander Cage didn't fare much better with critics, though it more than made up for it at the
box office, grossing an impressive $346 million worldwide.
Unfortunately, neither project seemed to do much to further Dobrev's career prospects.
Tabloid fodder relationships
Having spent much of her teenage years and twenties in the spotlight, Dobrev does her
best to keep her personal life private.
However, due to a string of high-profile romances with the likes of Whiplash star Austin Stowell,
Scream Queens alum Glen Powell, and former Vampire Diaries co-star Ian Somerhalder, the
actress' dating life has, at times, overshadowed her professional endeavors.
Most damaging was the lingering rumor that Dobrev quit The Vampire Diaries over her alleged
bad blood with Somerhalder, who married actress Nikki Reed in 2015.
During the filming of the series finale, the trio put this myth to bed once and for all.
Reed posted a picture of the three of them on Instagram, calling to put "an end to all
those fake stories of on set jealousy, betrayal, made-up-friendships lost & women hating women."
Being a role model
Dobrev takes being a role model very seriously, and is known to advocate on behalf of body
positivity, mental health, and fitness, efforts that are closely tied to her longtime activist
work.
While publicly supporting a number of charities, she is devoted to using her celebrity and
time to foster real change in the world as an Oceana Ambassador.
This has included an initiative to ban the sale and trade of shark fins in the United
States.
By making activism one of her top priorities, Dobrev doesn't necessarily have time for acting
all the time.
Flatliners flop
The 2017 remake of the 1990 sci-fi-horror flick Flatliners, in which Dobrev starred
alongside Ellen Page and Diego Luna, was unfortunately a critical and commercial failure.
It earned a downright dismal four percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The site's brutal consensus read,
"Flatliners falls flat as a horror movie and fails to improve upon its source material,
rendering this reboot dead on arrival."
It didn't fare much better at the box office, grossing only $45.2 million worldwide, less
than the original, without adjusting for inflation.
Ouch.
Run This Town backlash
Dobrev has been cast in the upcoming political drama Run This Town, which is set against
the backdrop of the late Rob Ford's scandalous term as Toronto's mayor.
But the film found itself the subject of major controversy in April 2018.
At the time, the character played by Ben Platt was wrongly assumed to be based on Robyn Doolittle,
the reporter who played a key role in covering Ford's substance abuse and sexual assault
scandals.
Doolittle herself tweeted,
"I'm glad they're rewriting the fact that it was a female reporter who investigated
Rob Ford.
Why have a woman be a lead character when a man could do it?
Ammaright?"
Platt took to Twitter to emphasize that his character was "in no way based on Robyn Doolittle,"
adding that he'd never agree "to be a part of a film that would attribute the accomplishments
of a remarkable woman to a fictional man."
While Dobrev didn't publicly comment on the matter, the media storm surely didn't help
to cast a positive light on her upcoming efforts on the big screen.
Turning it around
Dobrev may have spent much of her post-Vampire Diaries career trying to maintain her momentum
in Hollywood, but it looks like her film and television prospects are about to take off.
In June 2018, she appeared in Drake's iconic music video for "I'm Upset," which featured
a fictional high school reunion with his former Degrassi castmates.
That August, she returned to the big screen, starring in Ken Marino's pooch comedy Dog
Days.
Dobrev is also set to appear in the teen drama Departures alongside Maisie Williams and Asa
Butterfield, and she landed a lead role in the upcoming CBS multi-cam comedy Fam.
Plus, she was cast in the pulp-action flick Lucky Day.
With a number of diverse acting roles lined up, here's hoping that Dobrev's career will
make it back on track soon enough!